Construction on the Bayou Bridge pipeline has begun, even as opponents pursue multiple legal challenges to block the 163-mile line across southern Louisiana and some have promised to stand in the way of the bulldozers and backhoes, The Advocate reported.

Hailed by oil industry advocates as a needed link in the state’s industrial infrastructure during a boom in the petrochemical sector, the pipeline will carry crude oil between a hub in Lake Charles and a terminal in St. James Parish but also cut through the environmentally sensitive Atchafalaya Basin.

The Bayou Bridge pipeline, which will be able to move up to 480,000 barrels per day when finished, will end up in a section of western St. James Parish that’s already home to oil tank farms and other major crude oil lines that service river and rail traffic, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port and refineries along the river. It also sends some that oil back toward the nation’s midsection and even Canada.

But opponents have challenged the pipeline in court, saying it poses spill threats to drinking water, fisheries and to residents who live nearby.

The Department of Interior will offer 77.3 million acres offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida for oil and gas exploration and development, according to Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt.

The Department of Interior will offer 77.3 million acres offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida for oil and gas exploration and development, according to Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt.